I have great memories of the Fitchburg Theater. When I was little they’d play 2 movies on the Saturday matinee & raffle off a bicycle between shows. And I worked as a projectionist there for about a year during high school. Playing first run movies like Body Heat, Arthur, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Halloween & the Empire Strikes back. I was trained on the carbon arc projectors in that oven of a projection booth by a genius named Leo & ate a lot of Espresso pizza with Frank. Bill was the owner & his brother Brian & Chinky ran the place. (Had to drop the keys of to them after we closed at night to TWEEDS restaurant.)
I really loved that beautiful old place, but was never smart enough to take any pictures of the inside before it was ruined. (Which really was kind of stupid considering Leo was teaching me photography at the time.)
Try to explain to a kid today how immense & ornate that screen/stage was. How incredible the acoustics were or…..how terrifying it was to walk through in the dark, barring all the doors after closing, while Dave (another projectionist) played the theme from Halloween.
It really was something standing at the top of the balcony, just below the projectionist booth stairs & being able to recite every line of Raiders while downing warm soda & stale popcorn. It was a time & place I’ll never forget.
Anyway. I really enjoyed this page. Thanks for the memories.
I have great memories of the Fitchburg Theater. When I was little they’d play 2 movies on the Saturday matinee & raffle off a bicycle between shows. And I worked as a projectionist there for about a year during high school. Playing first run movies like Body Heat, Arthur, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Halloween & the Empire Strikes back. I was trained on the carbon arc projectors in that oven of a projection booth by a genius named Leo & ate a lot of Espresso pizza with Frank. Bill was the owner & his brother Brian & Chinky ran the place. (Had to drop the keys of to them after we closed at night to TWEEDS restaurant.)
I really loved that beautiful old place, but was never smart enough to take any pictures of the inside before it was ruined. (Which really was kind of stupid considering Leo was teaching me photography at the time.)
Try to explain to a kid today how immense & ornate that screen/stage was. How incredible the acoustics were or…..how terrifying it was to walk through in the dark, barring all the doors after closing, while Dave (another projectionist) played the theme from Halloween.
It really was something standing at the top of the balcony, just below the projectionist booth stairs & being able to recite every line of Raiders while downing warm soda & stale popcorn. It was a time & place I’ll never forget.
Anyway. I really enjoyed this page. Thanks for the memories.